


And Then They're Gone

by chaoticTransmissions



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Despite how sad this is, Gen, Sad, Short, Status:Brave, there are glimmers of joy and love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24059581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticTransmissions/pseuds/chaoticTransmissions
Summary: As Ned Chicane lays dying, he thinks over his regrets in life.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	And Then They're Gone

Ned Chicane has a lot of regrets.

He regrets that his mother named him Edward and not just Ned, and that his middle name is Kelly--for his great aunt-- and not ‘danger’ or ‘black diamond’ or ‘butterfly.’ He regrets that he didn’t get to film more episodes of Saturday Night Dead and that his last episode was such an abysmal finale.

There’s a much longer list, but he’s going to die before he gets to the end of it.

Ned knows this for a fact. He can feel the metal of the bullet as it burrows in his chest, heat radiating from it like a friction burn. As he stares up at the blur of stars, Ned knows. There won’t be another chance. Another sunrise. Another anything. He tries to stay calm. He’s still got his list of regrets, after all. The night of the fire is at the top of that list. But that’s a regret that’s tormented Ned every night since. He’s turned over every other scenario in his head.

One where he and Boyd never met. One where he got Aubrey’s mother out before the roof collapsed. Even one where he went to law school like his father wanted and never became a criminal in the first place. A world where Ned Chicane was sitting in a desk right now, sorting through paperwork instead of his final moments.

On his list of regrets, the lies come right after the fire. Not telling his friends sooner about the pendant and about the past. Not telling Aubrey. He should have told Aubrey, but he was such a fucking coward. But those were old regrets, ones that had burrowed deep into his very soul. There was no use replaying them now. Not when he had so little time.

Vaguely, Ned registers Barclay pulling a frenzied Dani away. Back to the Lodge and the spring, hopefully. She’d come back to herself in time. Back to herself and back to Aubrey, who even someone as clueless as Ned could tell was deeply in love with the Sylvan.

There was another regret. He’d hoped-- before the shit hit the fan-- to one day be a guest at their wedding. To try Duck’s favorite French Onion soup with him again. Jake Cool Ice promised just last week to hit the slopes with Ned sometime soon. He and Kirby had been planning a haunted house in the Cryptonomica next Halloween. There were a thousand of Barclay’s dishes Ned would never get to try. He’d never again play pool with Mama or wake up to the sound of Moira’s piano playing drifting up through the vents. He wouldn’t live to see what the future had in store for them all.

At least the pain was over now. Now all Ned felt was the damp, cool leaves again his skin and the blood soaking through his shirt. Voices, soft and garbled floated all around him. Mama knelt by him, crying. Someone’s warm, scarred hands (Duck?) trembled as they touched his cheek.

They had the letters Ned had written. His last hopes for them all, though he hadn’t known that at the time. And they had each other. That had to be enough. Enough to win the impossible fight that awaited them. The Quell, an ancient and magical force of destruction that Ned could still barely comprehend. While he lay dying, two worlds hung in the balance. Ned was just a normal man, after all. What could he have ever expected to do against something like that?

But they could beat it. That much Ned was sure of. The Lodge-- his family-- they would win. All he needed to do was give them a chance, the same chance that Victoria had given him all those years ago when she left him the Cryptonomica. Stepping in front of that bullet for Dani… maybe it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of the vast and mysterious universe, but it was something Ned could do. Something only he could do.

As the stars above Ned drifted away in swirls of brilliant, golden light, he felt brave. Perhaps for the first time in his life. Ned Chicane had a lot of regrets, but this was not one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is depressing, plz don't hate me!


End file.
